This is the second of two parts of a lecture on the Platonic dialogue Crito, which I interpret in the light of Plato’s Euthyphro and Apology and Aristophanes’ Clouds.

There are a couple of “jumps” in the lecture where I removed inaudible portions of the discussion but left in my answers. The questions can be inferred from the answers.

The very last words, unfortunately, were cut off, but they were to the effect that Socrates chose to stay and die due to his commitment to the transpolitical values of the philosophical life.

The Source of the Lecture

In September and October of 1998, I gave a course of eight, two-hour lectures on “The Trial of Socrates.” We covered the following topics and texts:

Myth, pre-philosphical concepts of order, and the presocratic philosophical background of Aristophanes’ Clouds

Aristophanes’ comedy Clouds, which gives a very unflattering portrayal of Socrates

Plato’s dialogue Theages, which can be read as a rebuttal to the Clouds

Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro, which is set just before the trial of Socrates and deals with one of the accusations against him, namely impiety

Plato’s Apology of Socrates, his speech to the jury at his trial

Plato’s dialogue Crito, which is set in his prison cell as Socrates awaits execution

Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, which describes the last conversations and death of Socrates

The whole class was taped, but the tapes of the first lecture, which was an introduction to the whole course, and the last lecture, on the Phaedo, have disappeared. Nevertheless, the six remaining lectures, which I will release in 12 separate parts, contain a lot of useful material.

The books for the class are:

A Presocratics Reader, ed. Patricia Curd (we used the first edition; the pagination may be different for the second edition)

If anyone is interested in producing a transcript of this lecture, we will gladly publish it. Ideally, we would like one person to do a draft transcription and then place it online to allow other listeners to offer corrections. Please contact Greg Johnson at mailto://[email protected] before starting work, so we can prevent wasteful duplication of efforts.